US HOUSE — King edges Scholten to retain 4th District seat, Finkenauer beats incumbent Blum in 1st District

=== Republican Steve King has won a ninth term representing northwest Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.

Voters Tuesday re-elected King despite a string of controversies about comments and meetings he has held involving other candidates and groups characterized as white nationalists. King has argued that all those he met or made comments about were simply conservatives.

King defeated Democrat J.D. Scholten, a former minor league baseball player who raised more money than King and spent months crisscrossing the 39-county district.

King did little campaigning but maintained his hardline views on immigration and support of gun rights were in step with the conservative district.

Scholten argued the district needed a representative more focused on their needs than on promoting King’s controversial views.

Libertarian Charles Aldrich also was seeking the office.

=== Democrat Abby Finkenauer has been elected in northeast Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, becoming one of the youngest women ever elected to the U.S. House.

Finkenauer defeated incumbent Republican Rod Blum on Tuesday. She won after a campaign that played up her blue collar roots and focused on the need to help working-class families.

Blum lost in his bid for a third term. He was elected in 2014 as a tea party candidate and remained a reliable conservative and strong supporter of President Donald Trump. He’s acknowledged that Trump’s tariff fight with China has been costly for Iowa farmers but argued the president is a master negotiator and that the immediate pain will ultimately pay off in better commodity prices.

The 1st district covers 20 counties including Worth and Mitchell in our immediate listening area and includes the cities of Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, and Waterloo.